Word: gaelic
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...knew instantly that I wanted to play this instrument." Recalls Britton: "Tom was like a high priest with a new disciple. He told me that a piper has to be a woodworker, leatherworker, metalsmith and reedmaker just to maintain the instrument, and that I would have to learn Gaelic to understand the rhythm of piping. Basically, though, I had really long hair at the time, and I think he was afraid I'd use the pipes to play rock...
...some serious piping. Britton straps himself into his instrument like a fighter pilot getting ready for combat. First comes the bellows, a smaller version of the fireplace variety, belted next to his body and held under his right arm (whence comes the name: Uilleann is based on the Gaelic word for elbow). The bellows replaces a Scotsman's lungs in filling the leather bag that drives the sound. The bag goes under his left arm; out of it and across his lap comes a collection of wood and brass tubes. Some of these are the drones, which sound continuously...
...Gordon understands many languages. Fluent in Spanish and proficient in French, she has also studied Russian, Gaelic, Quechua (the second language of Peru), and she is currently learning Portuguese...
...proceeds with a chronological collection of anecdotes, poems and prose excerpts, lacing them with intermittent comments of historical or thematic relevance. There are many gems, such s the powerful, gruesome early Gaelic poem called "The Old Woman of Beare...
That streak is well hidden in Heaney's verse, which, like Yeats', mixes the familiar-domestic animals, the aroma of a country afternoon, the benison of a homecoming-with the stuff of legend-myth-haunted Gaelic songs, the discovery of a 1,000-year-old man buried in peat. For Heaney, objects always cast a long shadow: the observation of a skunk, of all animals, brings on a longing for his absent wife: "Your head-down, tail-up hunt in a bottom drawer/ For the black plunge-line nightdress...